Musa Na Allah Sokoto
Sokoto State Government says it spend over 1.8biliilion naira in 2021 for the provision of potable drinking water to the public.
The General Manager (GM) of the state water board, Ismai’la Umar Sanda Tambuwal disclosed this while briefing newsmen, Friday, on the activities of the board in the year 2021.
He said every month, the state government made available 150million naira for maintenance and purchase of chemicals and other equipment to the state waterworks, for improved supply of potable water to the public.
He said tremendous achievements have been recorded in the provision of potable drinking water despite various challenges.
According to him, the funds were used for the supply of water treatment chemicals, diesel, and the maintenance of water facilities, but he however noted that the state government at times approved additional funds based on a request for the execution of other projects.
Sanda decried that, despite successes recorded, Covid-19 and inadequate water supply from the two main sources have also remained the major challenges facing the board.
The GM maintained that the board proposed to provide two transformers and two generator sets in all the water stations in the 2022 budget to complement the power supply from the national grid.
He said last year, the board carried out various projects, renovations, and repairs of some facilities that include repairs of electric motors at the raw water sources intake that gulped over N5.8million.
Others were the repairs of the electric transformer at Bio water intake at the cost of over N5.4milion and that of the generator at the intake at N32million and N3.1 for purchase of fuel pump for 2000KV capacity generator.
Others were an extension of portable water supply to five communities that includes Rijiyar Dorawa, Gagi along Nakasari area, Kofar Kade, and Kofar Taramniya respectively.
Alhaji Umar also assured that the board would take drastic measures on people found wasting water and those who default to settle their N300 monthly water bills.
While urging consumers to always settles their water bills as at when due to enable the board to discharge its assigned schedules, he emphasized the resolve to focus on solving the lingering challenges in the general processing of portable drinking water for optimal efficiency, treatments, and distributions for public consumptions across the state.
